Elise was truly one of a kind — in the type of person she was and in the way she treated people.  What can we say – she was brilliant, down-to-earth, unbelievably hard working, attentive to people’s needs, a great writer, someone who loved to celebrate, a mentor, a friend, a truly good human being.  And – she cared so deeply about this country, our government, the Congress, the Senate, and the ability of government to address our problems for the common good.  As Senator Richard Blumenthal said in his testimonial to her in the Congressional Record, “Anyone who knew Elise would tell you that there was no one like her. She was an institution of congressional oversight.”  As Oliver Bullough, an award-winning journalist said in a column on global tax justice, “Elise Bean did more to expose the inner workings of tax havens, unscrupulous corporations and kleptocrats than all but a tiny number of people worldwide.” 

Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Elise went to college at Wesleyan University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1978.  She then went to the University of Michigan Law School and graduated with honors in 1982.  Her first Capitol Hill experience was working for Congressman Joe Moakley early in her career and then later served as a law clerk to former Chief Judge of the U.S. Claims Court Alex Kozinski.  Prior to joining the staff of Senator Levin in 1985, Elise worked as an attorney at the Department of Justice, Civil Division, Fraud Section.  In the Senate, she served as counsel on several of Senator Levin’s oversight subcommittees, ending up as Staff Director and Chief Counsel of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations from 2003 to 2014 when she retired from the Senate when Senator Levin retired. 

Her investigations, hearings, and legislation involved complex financial issues such as offshore tax abuses, money laundering, foreign corruption, unfair credit card practices, health care fraud, abuses involving derivatives and structured finance, and shell companies with hidden owners. She led Investigations into the 2008 financial crisis, HSBC money laundering problems, London whale trades at JPMorgan Chase, collapse of Enron, and offshore tax avoidance by Apple, Microsoft and Caterpillar.  And then she wrote a book about it all: Financial Exposure: Carl Levin’s Senate Investigations into Finance and Tax Abuse. 

With all of that, it was only logical that she would twice be named by the Washingtonian magazine as one of Washington’s 100 most powerful women and by the National Law Journal as one of Washington’s most influential women lawyers.